Drunk with Faith

The bystanders on the day of Pentecost thought the disciples were drunk — that’s how excited and boisterous they were acting.  That’s not our style, but maybe we have something to learn from them …

Drunk with Faith

Acts 2:1-21  Romans 8:22-27 

The story of Pentecost sets a very high standard for churches, and especially for preachers. All of those people are gathered – people from all around the world – and the Word of God is proclaimed in ways that everyone can understand. Or in the words of the NRSV: “… each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.” [Acts 2:6].

Now if you look around this sanctuary, you would probably think that I am speaking in the native language of almost everyone sitting here. And if you are thinking of that native language as American English, you are partially right. I say “partially right” because our faith speaks many languages, and only some of them involve words. If the church – and the preacher in particular – is going to be true to the Pentecost story, then we have to find ways to speak in many native languages.

For a good many people here this morning, God speaks in the language of the beauty of creation. I cannot count how often people have told them that they feel especially close to God out of doors, in the Boundary Waters or on a mountain top. The vocabulary of their faith is made up of natural wonders, of biological complexity and interdependency, and of the extravagance of life around us.

For others, with a slightly different scientific bent, it is the hidden elegance of creation that speaks loudest. Consider the dance of atoms and subatomic particles – a dance that seems more mysterious with each scientific discovery; or at a different order of magnitude, the spinning of galaxies unimaginably far from us in space.

For some Christians, the language of faith is the language of poetry. That starts with the poetry of the psalms and of our traditional hymnody, but it goes much farther than that. Some minds and ears are especially attuned to the creative use of the sound of words, the summoning of startling images, and the unexpected juxtaposition of emotions. The poems may or may not have “God words” in them, but they carry the essence of God in the art of the poet.

And in the same way, some of the faithful listen for God in the language of music. Here again, I am not talking only about what has come to be called “sacred music,” but about all music. In recent years the church has grown to a greater appreciation of the music of the wider world, music whose idiom is new to us and uncomfortable at first. We listen to that language when we listen to music, but we also listen to it in quite another way when we perform music, or when we create music together as a community.

The historic and academic words of theology are another important language of the faith. These words are often abstract, technical, and complicated by centuries of debate and division. It is tempting to dismiss this particular language as being old fashioned and remote from our daily lives. The truth is that these words speak to faith through the cognitive and analytic powers of the intellect. And for many of our neighbors, those intellectual questions are at the heart of faith.

Equally easy to miss (or to dismiss) is the traditional language of Protestant piety – the language of personal prayer, scripture study, and family devotions. Through the discipline of these daily habits, Christians deepen their understanding of the Gospel and open themselves to hearing the living word of the Spirit.

In our own denomination and congregation, the language of faith is often the language of justice and social action towards justice. Here the language is expressed more clearly in action and advocacy than in conversation alone.

The language of faith that we do not often speak is the ecstatic explosion of sound that seems to have happened on Pentecost in the passage we heard this morning. That cacophony was so extreme that bystanders were sure that the disciples and the crowd that had gathered must have been “filled with new wine.”

Peter denied this, but in a sense, the onlookers were right: the disciples and the crowd were drunk – they were high with the Holy Spirit. That wild expressive form of worship continues today in churches that describe themselves as “Pentecostal.” Those are the churches that revel in the gifts of the spirit that seem so odd to most of us, especially “speaking in tongues.” Services in those congregations include periods when worshippers shout, wave, dance, and express themselves in verbalizations that are not part of any recognizable language. For Pentecostals, these are signs of the presence of the Holy Spirit.

In our tradition (that is, Congregational and Reformed), most of us invoke the Holy Spirit in ways that are much quieter. A few minutes ago we asked the Holy Spirit to be present with little Hollis, as part of her baptism. After I finish speaking, our prayer hymn will ask the Spirit to “Come pray in me the prayer I need this day ..” (NCH #520, Eternal Spirit of the Living Christ). It is as if the Spirit we experience is calmer, more nuanced, more – well – sober than what the book of Acts describes. We are not often described as being drunk with faith. We are filled with faith, moved by faith, comforted by faith, upheld by faith, perhaps even healed by faith – but we are not usually tipsy with faith.

But I want to argue this morning that all of that is just a matter of style, of “native language.” I believe that the Holy Spirit is alive and well and moving in and through each of us, and in and through our congregation. Perhaps we are not dancing or shouting, but we are taking time to check in with friends and offer support and encouragement. Perhaps we are not speaking dozens of established languages, but we are forming various groups where men and women, youth and children feel as though their voices are truly heard. Perhaps we are not mistaken for an unruly band of revelers, but we are asking questions of ourselves and one another that will change the way we worship and work.

So although we are not part of the movement of Pentecostal churches, we are church of the Pentecost all the same. We are a church where we proclaim the gospel is as many forms and expressions as we can, and where we are always listening for new voices that may deepen and broaden our faith. We are a community in which our longing for the Spirit’s presence is sometimes muffled, but is never absent. And while we may not be drunk with faith, let us continue to drink thirstily from the deep well of God’s spirit.

Prayer for May 31, 2009

Almighty and everlasting God, creator of all things seen and unseen, hear now our silent prayers, as we open our hearts to you in the sacred quietness.

God of faith and hope, we bring before you our prayers for those we have named this morning – we especially remember … Bring to each of them the gifts of mercy and grace that are most needed, according to your wisdom and love.

God of our hearts and minds, this morning we offer our prayers for those circumstances in our lives that we cannot usually bring ourselves to say aloud. Help us to name before you and one another the disappointments, shames, sorrows, and shortcomings that eat away at our faith and our well being.

We pray for our relationships that are conflicted, dispirited, and unfulfilling.

We pray for ourselves and our loved ones who live with mental illness.

We pray for ourselves and our loved ones who live with chronic health conditions.

We pray for everyone who has been betrayed, cheated, or defrauded.

We pray this morning for those who live with addictions and alcoholism.

We pray for those who have lost their employment, or who are employed at work that is demeaning, dangerous, or disheartening.

And since our miseries are often accompanied by economic challenges, we pray for wisdom about money, time, and emotional energy.

And we pray for the secrets of our hearts that we can speak only to you.

All of these things we pray in the name of the one who listens with loving attention to all of our sorrows, and who bears them with us, even Jesus the Christ, and we pray together now in the words that he taught us …